This invention relates to radio control units and more particularly, to a modular radio control unit which may be used with many toy vehicles.
A wide variety of radio controlled toy vehicles such as cars, boats and airplanes have been developed over the years. These vehicles typically include a motor, a radio control receiver, and a power source such as batteries. The radio control receiver controls one or more elements of the vehicle in response to commands from a transmitter. The elements controlled are usually those which control the direction and speed of the vehicle.
Most prior art radio controlled vehicles each require a separate receiver and transmitter for their operation. These are among the most expensive components in a radio controlled vehicle. Accordingly, such toys have traditionally been expensive to purchase. Thus, children rarely own more than one such toy and quickly become bored with playing with the single toy.
One way to relieve this problem would be to permit the user to reconfigure the vehicle into a plurality of different shapes as has been done with vehicles which are not radio controlled. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,086, issued Feb. 14, 1978, to I. Ogawa shows a toy helicopter in which the electric motor and battery compartment may be relocated on the body of the toy to change it from a land vehicle to an amphibious vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,402, issued July 29, 1980, to I. Ogawa shows a toy in the form of a rocket with a removable tail section. The tail section includes a battery compartment and control switches, and may be used in conjunction with a second tail section to control the vehicle by means of a cable.
However, due in part to the mechanical and electrical complexity of their construction, prior art designs of radio controlled vehicles cannot be reconfigured by a child. For example, radio controlled vehicles generally have the radio control receiver and motor integrally mounted within the body so that these elements cannot be removed without disassembling the vehicle.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved radio controlled toy vehicle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive set of radio controlled toy vehicles.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a modular radio control unit which may be used interchangeably with many different toy vehicles.